I thought Mom and Dad would be the first ones to enter, but surprising me, it was Kiera and Kellan who popped in first. Kiera looked over at her sister with an expression of Don’t hit me. “Can we come in? We waited as long as we could…”
Anna was in a much calmer mood now that the painful part was over. Tears in her eyes, she nodded. “Yes, yes. Come meet your niece. She held Onnika up a little bit. “Onnika, this is your aunt Kiera and uncle Kellan. Guys…this is Onnika.”
Kiera’s eyes instantly filled with moisture that dropped onto her cheeks. Why did girls always cry around babies? Geez. “Oh my God, Anna, she’s beautiful.”
A mocking laugh escaped me. “Of course she is. She’s a Hancock. Did you expect anything less than perfection?” Kellan laughed at my comment, but Kiera ignored me. I was used to that. She often couldn’t handle my unique brand of awesomeness.
After washing her hands, Kiera walked over to Anna’s side of the bed. She instantly put her hands out for the baby, and a familiar reluctance washed over Anna’s face. There was just something about Onnika that made you want to hold on tight and not let go. Maybe she had superpowers. Wouldn’t surprise me. Someone in our family tree was going to develop them one day, that was just a given. And, in a way, you could say I already had them. Sexual prowess was an ability that I possessed in spades.
When Kiera had Onnika, she firmly held her to her body. “Oh God, she’s so tiny. Remember when Ryder was this tiny?” From the way Kiera looked up at Kellan, I thought another baby was soon to be in their future. There was nothing like holding a newborn to ramp up a woman’s sex drive. I’d bet all the money I had that Kellan was getting laid tonight. Interesting. Not even a day old yet, and Onnika already had two superpowers. That’s my girl.
While Kellan smiled and nodded at Kiera, she turned her attention back to Anna and me. “How did you come up with the name?”
Puffing up my chest, I jabbed myself with my thumb. “It was my idea.”
Anna made a scoffing sound and I frowned at her. “No it wasn’t. You wanted to go with Myrtle again.”
Remembering that lost negotiation, I frowned. “It’s a family name. I don’t know why you have such a problem with it.” Anna’s face scrunched into the look of disgust she always got when we mentioned my grandma’s name. Not wanting to argue about it again, I added, “And I was right, Onnika was my idea. You just supplied the spelling.” I gave her a grin and a wink to ease the sting in my words, if there was one. Sometimes it was hard to know what would piss chicks off.
Anna didn’t look upset when she turned back to her sister. She had a high tolerance for my crap. “He wanted to spell it A-N-N-I-K-A, but I thought that was too close to my name, so we switched it to O-N-N.”
Kiera nodded, then went back to cooing and cuddling Onnika. I didn’t think she had any plans to give Kellan a turn. Not willingly at least. Eventually she had to share though, because after a while everyone else walked into the room. And just like that, our place was party central. There were so many people in it, I felt like we should start charging admission.
Aside from Kellan and Kiera, Mom, Dad, Liam, Matt, Rachel, Evan, and Jenny were there. There were also nurses loitering outside the door, and a few people visiting other patients too, from what I could tell. Guess news of a rock star’s wife having a baby had already circulated around the hospital. I’d probably have to beat them back to get out of here.
Everyone was all smiles as they passed Onnika around, and whatever tension had been between us suddenly melted away. Rachel and Jenny were fine with me, the guys were fine with me, and I was fine with them. I could barely even remember why I’d been irritated earlier. Another one of Onnika’s superpowers. This kid was truly amazing. Again, not a big surprise. She was genetically engineered to be cool.
While Kiera impatiently waited for another turn with Onnika, she told Anna, “I called Mom and Dad. They’re heading out tomorrow or Monday. Mom’s mad that you couldn’t hold out until your due date.”
Anna snorted. “She’ll get over it. She did the last time.”
I expected my wife’s happy buzz of newborn bliss to fade, but she looked relaxed and sleepy as she lay there, watching everyone lose their shit over her daughter. It seemed like nothing could faze her at the moment, a fact that was confirmed when she told the room, “I’m so glad you’re all here for this, and Mom, Dad, I want you to stay as long as you want! My home is your home! Invite everyone, the more the merrier!”
My eyes widened. Did she really just say that to my parents? I couldn’t help but wonder if whatever was dripping into her IV was making her loopy or if she was riding a natural high. Either way, she’d just opened the floodgates, and there was no taking it back. I could see it in my mother’s eyes. She’d been given permission to crash for as long as she saw fit, and nothing Anna said or did now would matter. Our negotiation was null and void, but at least I hadn’t torn up the contract. No, Anna had screwed this one up all on her own.
Chapter 7
Oh Holy Awesome
Thanks to Anna giving my family the green light to stay as long as they wanted, two months later, my home was still full of visitors. Every single room was being used up by various relatives who’d decided to “visit” and refused to leave.
Anna’s parents were staying with Kiera and Kellan. Kiera said that was because our house was too crowded, but Anna let it slip that the real reason they were staying over there was because they preferred Kellan over me.